So what. These are primaries where the voters are principally republican. Less than half of less than half is not “the will of the people”.
Senator Principled conservative is losing to the “NY Liberal” among Republicans at the ballot box. That doesn’t say much positive about his general election attractiveness.
If the “principled conservative” can’t get republicans to vote for him how is he going to get mushy moderates he needs to win an election? No chance. Not going to happen. Ted Cruz is never going to be POTUS.
You miss my point entirely. I’m not debating whether Cruz or Trump is the more popular. That is completely irrelevant. My point is this. You cannot claim that Donald Trump represents the “will of the people”. Trump consistently polls at about 40% against either Clinton or Sanders. He is averaging about 40% in the Republican primaries. How is 40% “the will of the people”.